Sunday, August 5, 2007

The joy of health plans...

Yesterday, I finally decided to get a prescription refilled. It's a cream for my face which does seem to help (I'm not blessed with really good skin). So, I called it in to my friendly Target Pharmacy. I ran some errands and then headed to pick it up. It wasn't ready yet, because my previous insurance had been canceled. That's okay, I gave them my new insurance card from current job. A few minutes later it was in the system, with only one little hiccup. It seems that with the new insurance my co-pay for this particular prescription is $75. You are not misreading. $75. I was shocked. The folks at the Target pharmacy are awesome. They, of course, know this is a lot of money, so they ask you if you still want it. This one I have to think about. They'll hold until the 8/13 which is when the prescription expires.

At my previous job I thought is was horrible that the insurance company had to approve the prescription before I could get it. It takes about three days, but they did and I got a lovely letter telling me it had been approved for a year. Personally, I don't think the insurance company should have the ability to disapprove a prescription, but they apparently do. Nonetheless, it was approved. My co-pay was $35. I thought it wasn't great, but it wasn't outrageous. Now it appears I don't need approval, but it's $40 more. The cost without a drug plan is right at $130, so there is a $55 savings. But, $75 is still a lot of money for a prescription. At my new job, the employee premium for insurance is paid by the employer. Well, they are apparently making it up in other ways. I find myself again wondering if drug plans are really a good thing.

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